The Peabody Awards

The Atomic Bombshell

Winner 1994
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KSEE-TV

This enterprising story by reporter Dale Julin vividly illustrates that investigative reporting in television can continue to thrive despite ratings, pressure and other trends. In fact, this report counters the norms of most local televisions news stories. It has no breaking news value-the events that were the basis of this series happened over 40 years ago. Reporting this story involved the painstaking process of identifying and reporting evidence that a nuclear weapons accident in 1950 may have been covered up by the government, and that people in the vicinity of the Travis Air Force Base may have been exposed to harmful radiation. Reporter Dale Julin went back to the basics of newsreporting by obtaining previously classified documents, by interviewing survivors who may have been involved, and by challenging the Air Force on its official version of events. For an exceptional series of reports, a Peabody to reporter Dale Julin and KSEE-TV for The Atomic Bombshell.